5 de noviembre 2024
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It is an indisputable truth that for the fact of protesting massively but peacefully, the Ortega Murillos had hundreds of unarmed Nicaraguans assassinated, resulting in thousands of wounded. No one in Nicaragua has ever had so many young people and children killed by sniper fire, nor imprisoned and ordered so many young people to be tortured, nor had so much disregard and indolence for the mothers and families of those killed as they did. Political prisoners are tried and sentenced in secret without the right to defence or any judicial process, and numerous elderly people have been prevented from entering Nicaragua, their country, without knowing the reasons and condemned to die in exile, far from their families and their homeland.
Never before in such a short period in our history have almost eight hundred thousand Nicaraguans been forced into exile, leaving the country and their families. Never before have so many independent journalists been forced to close their news outlets, abandon their families, and emigrate to save themselves from jail and continue their work. Today, we are at the bottom of the press freedom index in Latin America.
Never before has anyone brazenly stolen so many national and municipal elections. On a par with them, Maduro is just an amateur. Nor have so many territories and national wealth ever been given away as now, when it is documented that 37% has been concessioned to foreign companies; nor has our Great Lake Cocibolca, our land and our sovereignty, ever been sold for thirty pieces of silver as they have.
Thousands of university students abandoned their studies and saw their academic records erased; hundreds of professionals had their degrees cancelled and their right to practice their profession denied.
Never have Nicaraguans been so afraid of repression and of their neighbours. Fear of speaking, thinking, meeting and communicating freely. Never before had it happened that, just because you were a relative of an opponent, all your property had been confiscated, your passport taken away and you were prevented from entering your country. Nor had it ever happened that, for thinking differently from the government, hundreds had been denationalised, their property confiscated and even their pensions stolen.
Never before had a political party in power been blatantly privatised. The FSLN, as a party, with party organs, no longer exists. All the real opposition parties were declared illegal and so many violations, mistreatment, cruel isolation and deprivation of political prisoners have caused international alarm.
We have never experienced such a prolonged and unjustified de facto state of siege as we have now. For six continuous years now, all constitutional guarantees and other rights have been denied, manu militari. Never before have we had such a monstrous, repressive, un punished, corrupt, servile police and para-police apparatus that is so subservient to Orte ga's regime and in total control of the citizenry as it is now.
Today we have levels of nepotism and corruption like never before in our history. Never be fore has there been so little public wealth and so much private wealth accumulated in the hands of the rulers, nor have they owned almost all the radio and television media, as now when all the television channels are under their control and there is no written media left; nor have all the national human rights organisations been closed down or prevented inter national organisations from entering the country; nor have the assets of more than 5,000 non-governmental organisations been cancelled and confiscated.
Never have so many Nicaraguan citizens been exiled. Official figures indicate that there are more than 500, but de facto thousands are prevented from returning to their country. Never before have bishops and priests been imprisoned and tortured, all religious processions banned, parish schools closed and their funds frozen. More than 260 religious have been banished and the Catholic Church and other denominations are openly persecuted. Never before has university autonomy been trampled to the point of absolute denial. Never before have all the assets, libraries, laboratories and archives of all the private universities in the country been illegalised and seized, and their teaching staff dismissed and persecuted. In addition, primary and secondary education has been emptied of knowledge and training and turned into propaganda centres for the regime.
The future of the country is compromised.
Never before have we had so many political prisoners for thinking differently. Since 2018, hundreds of prisoners have suffered different kinds of torture and violations of their rights. Now, being a family member of an opponent of the regime has become a crime and being a non-Ortega Sandinista is a crime and a betrayal of the country. Never before has there been direct persecution of the feminist movement, its leaders, their property confiscated and therapeutic abortion criminalised.
Never since the existence of the National Army has there been a violation and vilification of its military ranks and the period of command, only to ensure the submission and personal loyalty of the high command to the presidential couple. Never before has the humiliating mutation of an army born of a people's revolution occurred and its high command ended up as a submissive and servile praetorian guard of the dictators. Never before have Nicaraguan rulers and high-ranking officers with names and surnames been denounced by the UN as directly responsible for crimes against humanity.
Never have the economic and social rights of Nicaraguans been so trampled upon. All trade unions and organisations for the defence of workers are persecuted and cancelled, and only trade unions subordinate to the dictatorship remain. In addition, the peasant movement and its leaders are persecuted, exiled, and their land and property confiscated and occupied de facto.
They have violated all international agreements and treaties signed by the country in terms of Human Rights and Democracy, and like the slave-owners of the country, they do unscru pulous business with the misery of migrants from many countries.
Never have our forests been razed and ruthlessly exploited as they are now. Rivers and lakes are drying up due to excessive logging and the fauna is suffering from the irrational exploitation of forests and mountains. Environmental defenders have been equally unlucky. More than 70 indigenous people have been killed in the last ten years. Innumerable viola tions of the human rights and property rights of the indigenous and Afro-descendant peo ples of the Caribbean Coast have been committed. Indigenous leaders are persecuted, as sassinated, disappeared, and their lands are taken by settlers protected by the government. Mayors are stripped of their posts as if they were pawns of the regime. The dictatorship ‘does not admit the division of power’. Only the dictatorial couple has an authorized spokes person. The rest of the ministers, mayors, and magistrates of other powers only speak ‘un der instructions from above’.
The persecution of artists, musicians, writers, poets and painters has no precedent. To ap plaud the literary merits of Sergio and Gioconda, who do us so much honour, makes you an enemy of the government and their works are banned. Harassed and persecuted, de centralised cooperation, which provided so much help to Nicaraguan communities, has been forced to leave Nicaragua.
We live in an economy dependent on remittances; we pay the dictatorship the most expen sive electricity rates in Central America, while its bankers earn the highest rates of profit in the region. At the same time, 74% of the economically active population is still in the infor mal labour market, with no guaranteed daily bread; more than 50% of that population is un deremployed and thousands of women and young people, without protection of their rights, are exploited in the free trade zones promoted and applauded by the regime. The state apparatus was enlarged for clientelistic purposes until its current insolvency and unsustainability. The social security apparatus was also fattened up to its current crisis, which threatens its very existence. Today Nicaragua bears the disrepute of having the high est teenage pregnancy rate in Latin America and has once again been driven to the status of a highly indebted poor country, with a public debt that is growing at an alarming rate and which the people will have to pay with great privations.
The dictatorship abandons the community of Latin American countries, compromises our sovereignty and wealth with lionising loans to private companies, now with China; it slav ishly associates with Putin and Iran, and speculates with international drug trafficking. The Ortega Murillos have distorted and perverted the heritage of Sandino and those who sacrificed themselves for a democratic Nicaragua free of dictatorships, and are the main cause of anti-Sandinismo. They have built the most cruel and odious dictatorship in Latin America and are absolute autocrats and criminals of the homeland of Dario, Sandino and Pedro Joaquin Chamorro. For all this they will be held accountable.
Enough of dictatorship!
This article was published in Spanish in Confidencial. To get the most relevant news from our English coverage delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Dispatch.
